Pre-Service Elementary Teachers Bridge the Gap Between Research and Practice

Abstract

The goal of this study was to examine the two related links of research to teaching practice and teaching practice to research that pre-service elementary teachers made during an action research project focusing on a conceptual-change teaching experience with elementary school students. Data were collected from the final written reports from 144 groups of students. Analysis of the data by the process of grounded theory showed that the majority of students (96%) were able to link current educational research successfully to their teaching practice while fewer students (16%) were able to link their teaching practice back to the research base. Many students (30%), however, found new knowledge in the form of identifying new misconceptions or finding previously reported misconceptions with new populations or confirming prior research. Preliminary results (n = 17) based on the changes to the course showed significant improvement.